Check from God

Prior to coming to Mansfield Baptist Church to serve as pastor in 1996, I served as youth pastor at a church in Columbus from 1991-1996.

After I left that church to move to Newton County, the church I had previously served realized that the financial secretary had been embezzling funds from the church. When that was realized, she was arrested and convicted of embezzling about $200,000 from the church.

She was legally convicted in a trial and sentenced to several years in prison. This was at a church. And, she was a really nice lady. What went wrong?

In Acts 5, we read about a couple in the Jerusalem Church that was caught by the Holy Spirit working through Peter holding back part of the proceeds from the sale of a piece of property that they had promised to God. Peter makes it clear that the issue was not that they kept part of the proceeds of the sale but that they lied about giving all of the proceeds to the church for the Lord’s work. So, it was the lying that caused the problem. (See Acts 5:3-4.) What went wrong?

It seems that Ananias and Sapphira (that’s the couple’s names) wanted both the accolades of the church because the church thought they had sacrificed all of the proceeds and some money in the bank. So, they lied to the church, which as Peter points out they were actually lying to God. God’s judgment comes upon them as God makes it very clear that He wants the church to be pure before Him.

What do we learn from this? First, we learn that we need to be much more concerned about what God knows us to be than what others think us to be. Impressing others means nothing. God knows us and sees us for who we are. We cannot fool God. And, we are foolish for trying.

Second, we learn that we need to give to God what is rightly His. For all who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, all that we have is His. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Therefore, anything we hold back from offering to God is a problem.

The word used in Acts 5:2 is translated “kept back” in the Christian Standard Bible. It could also be translated embezzled. So, Ananias and Sapphira embezzled from God.

When we hold back what is rightly the Lord’s, we embezzle from Him, too. My business, my family, my time, my tithe, the Lord’s Day, my service, my heart all belong to God. When I use any of these for my own gain or pleasure in disobedience to how God instructs me or calls me to use them, I am embezzling from God.

Remember, God has called us to be pure before Him. Would God ask of you…what went wrong?

(Questions/responses: jeff.perkins@mbclife.org)